HTC Titan (AT&T) review:
HTC Titan (AT&T)

Entertainment is a key feature of Windows Phone, with great Zune integration, Smart DJ, and access to tools and information in Xbox Live, so you can customize your 3D avatar, track achievements, and discover new games.

The biggest and best feature that the Titan brings to the table is its 8-megapixel camera. It has an f/2.2-maximum aperture lens along with a backside-illuminated sensor (BSI) for good low-light performance. There's also a dual-LED flash for if you're in an especially dark environment. HTC added several camera tools to the standard camera app, like white-balance controls, face detection, flicker adjustment, ISO, sharpness, saturation settings, color effects, burst shot modes, and my personal favorite, panorama stitching.

The HTC Titan takes sharp photos on the whole, but indoor shots could be brighter.

Photo quality was pretty good. Images were sharp even with indoor lighting, and shutter lag was minimal at best. Still, I did wish the low-light photos were less dim. Outdoor shots looked fantastic, though, and the camera is capable of 720p HD video capture. Video quality looked quite good in our initial tests. Do remember that the Titan only has 16GB of internal memory, and you can't expand it.

Performance
I tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) HTC Titan in San Francisco with AT&T Wireless. Call quality was all right, but it could be better. On my end, I heard callers well enough, with good volume and clear voices. I did hear the occasional static hiss, which proved to be rather distracting once in awhile.

Callers, on the other hand, reported a strange muddy quality to my voice, as if I were talking through a voice modulator. They didn't detect much background sound, and volume was loud enough, but the muddiness still prompted them to ask me to repeat myself several times. Speakerphone quality was not too different from regular calls, though callers said my voice sounded deeper than usual.

HTC Titan call quality sampleListen now:

Even though AT&T has rolled out its LTE network, the HTC Titan is still on regular HSPA+. That's not that bad, though, because this "4G" network does deliver decent speeds. I loaded the mobile version of CNET in 18 seconds while the full CNET page loaded in 30 seconds. YouTube videos did require a couple of seconds' buffering time, but they played smoothly after that.

The HTC Titan is powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM. It's not the fastest phone on the block compared with the dual-core powerhouses out there, but I think it provides more than enough speed for tasks in Windows Phone Mango. I encountered no delays when launching apps or switching in between tasks.

The HTC Titan ships with a 1,600mAH lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 11.8 hours and standby time of 15 days. According to FCC radiation tests, the Titan has a digital SAR of 0.38 watt per kilogram.

Conclusion
The HTC Titan is a solid and well-built offering for those looking to jump ship to the Windows Phone OS. It has a large 4.7-inch display that makes it a treat to watch videos, though pixel density is not the greatest due to the WVGA resolution. Don't be deterred by the lack of a dual-core processor, as the 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor did its job just fine. It offers decent HSPA+ speeds and we applaud the fluid feel of Windows Phone's user interface. I'm also impressed with the quality of the phone's 8-megapixel rear camera, and the fact that there's a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls. At $199, the Titan is a tough sell against powerful Android competitors, but I hope there are those who are willing to give it a chance.

Nicole Lee is a senior associate editor for CNET, covering cell phones, Bluetooth headsets, and all things mobile. She's also a fan of comic books, video games, and of course, shiny gadgets.
See full bio